CNBC: Squawk on the Street Interview

Does the Age of a Stock Trader Matter?

Q: At 16 do you believe you have the ability to judge human nature trends that are set by individuals 3x your age?

Woah. I don’t need to read between the lines to know that this question comes with a chip upon it’s shoulder.

Here was my answer. I thought it was a very important question. I’m not answering it to justify my success as a trader and why people should read my blog from my 16 year old perspective, but more so to inspire traders at any age to trade if they feel like they want to. It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 95. Here is why:

The only number that is relevant to stock trading is the return. If someone has high returns, they have an ability to accurately judge human nature trends with respect to the stock market. If they have low returns, then they don’t. My successful returns allow me to confidently share insight to human nature trends as well as other trends.

The age of the stock trader is irrelevant. If a stock trader is notably younger or older than the average age of stock traders, then it is a cool and different take on the same subject, meaning it provides a unique perspective — whether progressiveness on the young side or wisdom from the older side.

Bottom Line: Listen to the insight of successful traders, those who achieve high returns. Age is notable if it contributes cutting edge ideas, notions containing wisdom, or unique insight. Otherwise, age is irrelevant. #onlyreturnsmatter

Rachel Fox is a 18 year old actor, musician, and day trader. Rachel's Fox on Stocks blog provides her perspective on the stock market as she trades stocks, options, and other financial instruments. The information on the Fox on Stocks website helps you go from Zero to Opening Your Own Investing or Trading Account and…

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24 comments

Great words, Rachefeller, and is good for you, beacause you are imposing a school. Are we ready for futures teen Stock trader matters? Here in Peru, yes. We need one, urgent. Our old economist are very corrupt and this is the reason we live in crisis always.

By the way, Have you seen the sitcom Family Ties? You are like the teen Alex P Keaton (Michael J Fox) the star of this show, althoug his character was a little patetic.

Hello Fox. I was impressed with your ability to explain some “complex” terms. Pretty cool.
I don’t doubt you have been doing a great job on stocks, but I was curious to know how did you measure your 64% return. What is your sampling, considering you are not a long time on stocks, right?

I started trading stocks when I was 16 as well. It’s best to start as young as possible in my opinion. The concepts I learned very quickly but learning how to handle the fear/greed emotions and to be able to look at investments objectively rather than with your emotions took much longer.

You are completely right. Whoever says that experience has anything to say in life is lying. Everyone can do it. Everyone can do anything. You just have to send a wish to the universe and listen to your feelings and you will always be right. Always. And whoever says different is a real loser and doesn’t want to be successful. All in and let the games begin

Thanks so much for creating this blog!!! Im a few years old than 16. I have been learning about stocks for the last 2 years and I have understood very little. Now after reading your blog it makes sense. Thank you so much!!!! Your blog posts are fabulous.

One word….haters. The world is full of them. They are jealous and will scoff at your success because they are insecure in themselves and their abilities. They are also jealous that they themselves did not have the insight, or fortitude to learn stock market trading at the young age of 16.
Bottom line, age is irrelevant. What matters is the having the desire to gain the knowledge and master the practical application of that knowledge, that is what is essential. Also, learning discipline as to trade effectively and most importantly the desire to want to be a successful trader (i.e. – not treating the stock market like a casino). These are the traits that make someone a winner at not only stock market trading but ANYTHING they want to do in life.

We all make our destiny’s each and every day. You wanted to be an actress, you became one. You wanted to become a successful trader and now you are one. I give you massive kudos…!!

I am a successful equity options trader and yesterday I did not even know who you were. Today I tweeted about you, have become a fan of your achievements, will now be a reader of your blog, and will recommend your site to people who are either traders or have a desire to become traders so that they can become empowered from your knowledge.

Saw you on CNBC yesterday. As one of those who is 3x your age, I can say your words have the wisdom of those with many years trading experience. Anyone who figures out trading is a game of human nature (represented by price movement) rather than companies and commerce has a huge leg up on the “competition”. I was also intrigued when you were asked about AAPL and said you like to stay away from news driven stocks. Very wise indeed. There are many much older than yourself who should think about that one. Age only matters if you let it.

First of all congrats to you. It’s great to read about someone your age having an interest in trading. There’s one thing I wonder about though, all this talk about being “successful”. I don’t know many professional traders that go around claiming to be successful. Success in this game doesn’t come from a few successful trades or even a few successful weeks/months/years. The real success comes from years of getting beaten up in the markets but still pushing thru and learning from your mistakes. I’ve been doing this for almost as long as you’ve been alive and by most peoples standards I’ve been very successful. Will I say that? Absolutely not. I haven’t been doing this long enough to claim success.

You have to be very careful about how you think of yourself in this game. You can’t get to gassed up over a successful streak. Take my word for it, when you think you’re riding high and have it figured out you will learn quickly that you don’t Be careful young one.

Once again I am happy to hear you have a passion for this business but I find it crazy that you’d portray yourself as successful. You don’t have enough time or experience to be able to truly claim success. Same goes for being a teacher. You haven’t experienced enough to really teach people what needs to be learned. That type of knowledge can only be picked up via experience. Not making some good trades over a short period of time.

I wish you luck but please keep a level head. We may call this a game but it’s not. There are sharks in these waters.

I saw your interviews on Fox and CNBC. Big congrats on your early success – hopefully it will inspire more people your age to take an interest in investing/trading- you can never start too soon!

I’m surprised by the amount of negative feedback you’ve received from traders. You would think they would be congratulating you on your early trading success and cheer you on to continue, but I guess some people are either jealous or insecure.

Pay no mind to them. It’s sad really that any adult traders would feel the need to try and cut down a 16yo as if that’s supposed to make them feel superior.

In particular, pay no attention to the whiny tweets from @Adam_Tang. He’s also on StockTwits where he was making empty challenges against you. I kindly told him to back off and give you some slack rather than challenge you on your abilities. That didn’t sit well with him and we wound up in an exchange where I was now also included in his attacks, lol!

The hilarious part is, I finally figured I should ask him about his performance record since he is so busy questioning yours and mine. It turns out this guy has NO PERFORMANCE RECORD and he stopped his attacks and went silent. So this guy who I see has been issuing numerous insults to you is just an arrogant wannabe trader that can’t even prove his own trading performance who’s obviously jealous of you. I suppose you should be flattered he felt so insecure/jealous that he was compelled to attack a 16 yo. =) Check out http://stocktwits.com/soulfire for a link to the whole conversation. His user ID on Stocktwits is @Adamantium .

Congrats again- and pay the naysayers no mind. The market is tough enough as it is without having to deal with those taken over by green eyed monsters with an extra serving of haterade.

Ms. Fox:
At sixteen you seem to have been given a very good foundation from your parents. I was greatly impressed by your savvy on the recent internet post. My husband and I have been trading and sharing what we know with our nephews/nieces and I am very pleased to share your words and thoughts with them as they too find their way in this very “different” world from when I and your parents grew up. Your are refreshing and it gives me some relief to find a young person so informed and hardworking, which are two words that had seemed lost in our world until now…. I hope you are the wave of the future of our country. I would wish you good luck, but that would be a bit silly since it does appear that you have learned to make your own and have the support of some pretty wise and smart parents. So I will wish you well and continue to follow your success with much interest.

Kudos to you and your parents. I also am relieved to know there are future leaders who have learned values from their parents and willing to teach others. Your work ethic and penchant for reading people and their financial plays will go far. All ages including this baby boomer can learn from your example.

Not everyone has a chip on their shoulder or is a hater. They sound like that because they are asking questions you don’t like to hear. You’ve been in the market for like 1 year with real money making 30% returns. Last year you could have bought BAC and held for a year and had 100% in returns.

Anyways, you’re young and hard headed, you’ll learn a costly lesson the hard way. I just hope you don’t put all your and your parents money at risk, and trade with very little

hi, I don’t write and speak english very well, I am latina, but I want you to ask something, probably only you can help me, I do the same activity like you, but I have to put on a document of my son’s school, what is my job, and I don’t know how to write it in english, because I trade online, like you, with my own money, and just for me I don’t receive commissions or something like that and I don’t have a licence, just I trade online from my computer in my house, could you tell me what I have to write? thanks a lot!!

I made over 100% in 2012 and mostly not thru day-trading.
Over the course of the year there were plenty of panic moments that turned out to be great buying and shorting opportunities. So it was an easy year for both daytraders and buy-and-hold folks. My biggest winners turned out to be the latter.
From my many years of trading, daytrading worked in certain years and failed miserably in others. If you are a first time daytrader who gets lucky the first year, the odds are against you the following year simply because the winnings usually cloud your judgement.
I would say if you can master >20% each year for 5 years in a roll doing daytrading, then you can call yourself a true master otherwise you will be one of many first-time-lucky daytraders.
The hardest thing to stomach is when you lose all your winnings and you still believe your method works then all hell will break loose. Bewarned!

LOL you must be very old or out of touch. These days a website is a piece of piss to create and blog especially with wordpress. There are many traders blogging these days. Yes only the smartest people understand that youth is just as valuable as experience and the “this person is so young yet she is doing xxxx” is a very powerful story in its own right.

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About me

Rachel Fox is an 18 year old actor, musician, and day trader. Rachel's Fox on Stocks blog provides her perspective on the stock market as she trades stocks, options, and other financial instruments. The information on the Fox on Stocks website can help you go from Zero to Opening Your Own Investing or Trading Account and more.